1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to handheld computing devices such as cell phones and personal data assistants. More particularly, the invention concerns a handheld computer that uses a rules engine to honor rules that govern aspects of data presentation that can vary from language to language according to the data type or the nature of user-operation being performed. In honoring the rules, the rules engine helps to ensure that data are automatically presented, and user initiated operations behave, in compliance with a designated language.
2. Description of the Related Art
Handheld computing devices are quite popular today. Computer-enabled cell phones and personal data assistants are two examples. At minimum, these devices include a user display, a physical or virtual keypad or a digitizing surface for user input, and a digital data processor housed in a case.
To communicate effectively with the human user, such devices must provide their output in one language or another. Typically, the programming of the data processor honors one such language exclusively. This programming may be implemented in various ways, such as using a general purpose processor to execute instructions, or by programming circuitry such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc. More specifically, the programming of a computing device to observe one language or another is typically implemented in its operating system, coupled with availability of the corresponding fonts.
Although this arrangement enjoys widespread popularity, there are still some issues. First, the task of writing different operating system versions for different languages can be time consuming and expensive. Consequently, some manufacturers might forego writing operating systems for languages with a relatively small number of speakers, because they provide a relatively small number of potential customers. For people that speak these languages, it may be frustrating to find a handheld computer that is programmed to observe these languages.
A second issue is that manufacturers, faced with hundreds or thousands of available languages, can find it difficult to select one language to incorporate into its handheld computing devices. Some manufacturers plan to produce different devices programmed in different languages in the same proportion as the languages of the expected buyers. However, the market can change significantly in the lag time between manufacture and sale, making precise planning all but impossible. This can leave the manufacturer or its distributors stuck with products programmed in a language that is a slow seller.
A third issue is that, in the rare case somebody who speaks a rare language can somehow find a handheld device programmed in their language, they might be stuck with that device. It could be difficult to resell the device in the future because the vast majority of buyers probably speak another language, such as English or Chinese or Spanish.
Consequently, due to certain unsolved problems, language-specific programming of known handheld computing devices may not always satisfy all manufacturers or consumers.